Gophers Football Hires New Familiar Position Coach

Posted by author February 11, 2025 Football

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Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The 2024 Minnesota Gophers football season is long over. Last year’s draft eligible players are preparing for the NFL Draft while others who ran out of eligibility are preparing for the real world.

Meanwhile, Golden Gophers underclassmen are already preparing for next season, while PJ Fleck and his coaching staff fly around the country recruiting high school prospects and transfer portal targets from coast-to-coast.

Speaking of the Golden Gophers coaching staff, it’s been in flux this offseason, much more so than the roster. Minnesota lost another defensive coordinator, when Corey Hetherman was hired by Miami. They replaced him with defensive backs coach Danny Collins.

PJ Fleck - Minnesota Gophers head football coach

Fleck also lost running backs coach Nic McKissic-Luke, who was hired by the New York Jets for the same position. That after they lost top young assistant, Winston DeLattiboudere, who coached the defensive line and held the position of assistant head coach to the Arizona Cardinals.

But on Monday, PJ Fleck moved to fill part of the coaching vacancy left by DeLattiboudere by hiring Central Michigan DL coach C.J. Robbins as the Golden Gophers’ new Rush Ends coach. Robbins isn’t a stranger to PJ’s program, though. He was a member of the MN coaching staff in 2020 and 2021.

Sources: Minnesota is expected to hire Central Michigan defensive line coach C.J. Robbins as the school’s new rush ends coach. Robbins coached previously at Kent and South Dakota. He was also on the staff at Minnesota for two seasons in 2020 and 2021 and is a Northwestern grad. pic.twitter.com/0RorjumzYD

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 11, 2025

C.J. Robbins is from the small town of Peru, Illinois. He was a three year starter for the Northwestern Wildcats from 2014 to 2016 where he wore the captains patch as a senior and where he was named academic All-Big Ten twice.

When Robbins’ playing career ended, he started his coaching career at the University of Miami (Ohio) in 2019 as an assistant defensive line coach. From there, he left for the University of Minnesota, where he worked mostly with Rush Ends, just like he will now.

After he left Dinkytown in 2021, C.J. Robbins landed at the University of South Dakota where he also worked with outside linebackers for two seasons. In 2023, he moved on to Kent State University, where he also coached Rush Ends under former U of M running backs coach, Kenni Burns for the past two seasons.

Mentioned in this article: Assistant Coach C.J. Robbins